All-in-One Bowl Cream Cheese Cake and Frosting

A vanilla bundt cake where the cake and frosting is made together in one bowl! Have you ever seen such a crazy thing?

It immediately caught my attention as something different from the norm. A cake I had to make immediately.

The cake is made backwards starting with the frosting and ending with the cake batter.

You make a giant bowl of cream cheese frosting then remove a portion and set it aside for frosting the cake. With the frosting out of the way you move on to the cake baking.

The remaining bowl of “frosting” is used as the base for the cake batter. All you do is beat in the remaining cake ingredients.

How cool is that?

Later on when the cake is all cooled and ready to be frosted. . . there’s no dirtying up of more dishes and measuring cups and beaters too. All you do is pull out the bowl of frosting you set aside earlier and faster than you can say “I love cake” it’s frosted and ready to be served.

The resulting cake has a dense, fluffy texture. Buttery and moist. The frosting is especially creamy and quite sweet with a hint of tanginess from the cream cheese. It is not very thick at all being a cross between a buttercream and a glaze. You wouldn’t be able to pipe it if you wanted to make cupcakes instead and it would slide right off a layer cake. The bundt is the perfect vehicle for it!

My cake-loving family knows good cake when it crosses their lips and this, according to them, is good cake. It’s already been requested again. Twice. Help me keep the secret. Don’t tell them how easy it was.

In a large mixing bowl on medium speed beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth and creamy about 2 minutes.

Add confectioners' sugar alternately with 2/3 cup of the milk in 3 additions beginning and ending with the sugar, beating on low speed after each addition just until blended, after the last addition continue beating 2 minutes on medium speed until fluffy and well blended.

Remove 2 + 1/2 cups of the frosting from the bowl into another bowl and cover with saran wrap. Temporarily store in a cool place.

Cake:

Add the eggs to the remaining frosting in the bowl and beat on low just until blended.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to the frosting mixture alternately with the remaining 2/3 cup of milk in 3 additions beginning and ending with the milk. Beat on low speed after each addition just until blended then after the last addition continue beating 1 - 2 minutes or until well blended.

Pour into pan and bake 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack - while cake is still warm use a knife to loosen the the cake from the side of the pan.

Once cool turn out from pan onto a serving dish. Spoon the frosting over top of the cake allowing it to drip down the sides of the cake.